Eligible planning projects must have a transportation nexus per Article XIX Sections 2 and 3 of the California Constitution. Therefore, successful planning projects are expected to directly benefit the multimodal transportation system. These grants will also improve public health, social equity, environmental justice, the environment, and provide other important community benefits. The period of grant fund availability spans over three FYs and approximately 32 months for grant project activities after the grant agreement is executed and Caltrans issues a Notice to Proceed. Refer to Chapter 9.2 for details regarding the anticipated grant project start and expiration dates.

The IGF builds on decades of technical expertise and market analysis accumulated at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the nation’s only federal lab dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency research. We are strongly committed to our mission of connecting cutting-edge startups with motivated investors. Presenting companies are chosen from applicants vetted by a selection committee of more than 150 climate tech and cleantech investors and industry experts. This rigorous screening process provides beneficial feedback to startups that apply. The top 40 companies are invited to present.

Hailing from around the world, BE Fellows are focused on technologies that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases, at scale, by at least 500 million tons per year. Technologies supported to date include high-impact areas such as hydrogen, electrofuels, steel, cement, food and agriculture, energy storage, nuclear fusion, carbon dioxide capture, storage and sequestration. The Breakthrough Energy Fellows program has three pathways, defined as follows:

• Innovator Fellows are world-leading scientists and engineers who enter the program with a critical climate technology to commercialize.
• Business Fellows are experienced professionals with tech commercialization skills who support the Innovator Fellows in accelerating their path to market.
• Explorers receive funding for earlier stage, higher technical risk endeavors. These projects are typically led by scientists at university labs or research entities.

The Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy (IGNIITE) 2025 program is designed to support a new cohort of early-career innovators to develop the most disruptive and unconventional ideas into transformative new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. This announcement is purposefully broad in technical scope, but eligibility is limited to early-career researchers. In addition to research efforts, awardees will engage with ARPA-E and fellow awardees through dedicated IGNIITE events, meetings, and mentorship activities. Submissions to this solicitation must propose transformational R&D that has the potential for high impact. If successful, a project could create a new class or new trajectory for an energy technology, with the potential to substantially contribute to ARPA-E’s statutory goals. Awards under this program may take the form of exploratory research that provides the agency with information useful for the subsequent development of focused technology programs. Alternatively, awards may support proof-of-concept research for a particular new technology in an area not currently supported by the agency.

Are you an innovator? Do you have an emerging business or solution related to energy, climate, sustainability, or cleantech? Are you ready to take your innovation or business to the next level? The PowerNorth Virtual Incubator is a 10-week program tailored for early-stage energy and cleantech entrepreneurs in Minnesota.

Sponsored by the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the American-Made EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) challenges student teams to compete for cash prizes for successfully identifying a promising energy technology, assessing its market potential, and creating a business plan for commercialization. Faculty are challenged to create innovative implementation plans that expand energy technology commercialization.

Students: Develop and present a business plan that leverages National Laboratory-developed or other emerging energy technologies developed by students, faculty, or industry. Throughout the competition, they receive mentorship and materials to help them succeed, all while competing for more than $400,000 in cash prizes.

Faculty: Develop and implement educational activities to engage more students in energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship topics at their institution. While faculty have always been, and remain, welcome and encouraged to mentor a team competing in EnergyTech UP, this new track is designed to incentivize and support faculty directly, with more than $100,000 in cash prizes available.

The Climate Change Investment Initiative (2c2i) is a 10-year, $20 million, joint commitment between Exelon Corporation and its philanthropic arm, Exelon Foundation, to invest in and cultivate innovative start-ups focused on advancing climate change mitigation, adaptation and resiliency efforts, while also promoting social equality and economic prosperity, in Exelon’s service territories. Through the combined resources of Exelon Foundation ($10 million equity investment commitment) and Exelon Corporation (up to $10 million in-kind service commitment), 2c2i supports innovative start-ups that catalyze solutions to climate change challenges within Exelon’s major market areas, while advancing social equality and economic prosperity. Specifically, we’re looking for startups focused on any aspect of sustainability (e.g. GHG mitigation, climate resiliency, etc.), that are currently doing work, or have the potential to do work, that impacts any of Exelon Corporation’s six major markets—Atlantic City, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Wilmington, DE.

The NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award (TRAILBLAZER) program supports individual investigators who propose novel research projects with the potential to innovatively and creatively address national needs and/or grand challenges, advance US leadership, and catalyze the convergence of engineering and science domains. TRAILBLAZER will support engineers and scientists who leverage their distinctive track record of innovation and creativity to pursue new research directions that are distinct from their previous or current research areas.

For more than a decade, the BNEF Pioneers program has identified a group of game-changing technologies or innovations annually – each with the potential to accelerate global decarbonization and halt climate change. Applicants are shortlisted by the BNEF Pioneers team, and finalists are judged by a panel of BNEF experts. Winners must prove they offer a novel, substantial, scalable and competitive solution. In 2025, the program will focus on three global climate challenges and will award the Pioneers prize to innovators with scalable, impactful and equitable solutions to these challenges.

NSF-supported science and engineering research increasingly relies on cutting-edge infrastructure. With its Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program and Major Multi-user Facilities (“Major Facilities”) projects, NSF supports infrastructure projects at the lower and higher range of infrastructure project costs, Foundation-wide, across science and engineering research disciplines. The Foundation-wide Mid-scale Research Infrastructure opportunity is intended to provide NSF with an agile, Foundation-wide process to fund experimental research capabilities in the mid-scale range between MRI and Major Multi-user Facilities.

The Ocean Exchange Collegiate Award, and the Guy Harvey Foundation Collegiate Award 2024, of $10,000 USD each, are given to the solutions that advance our understanding of the ocean and help minimize our impact on these resources, even while using them for human benefit, resulting in more resilient bodies of water including healthy marine life and coastlines.

Citizen science, in which individuals or organizations voluntarily participate in one or more aspects of the scientific process, is one of six NOAA science and technology focus areas.  Citizen science has a rich history within NOAA with volunteer observations contributing to our Nation’s prediction and management of weather, oceans, coasts, and fisheries for decades. NOAA supports opportunities for the public to engage with the agency’s mission and address societal needs through science, technology, and innovation. The purpose of this solicitation is to support citizen science projects that can help support federal fisheries stock assessments and climate-ready fisheries management. Funding will prioritize projects that: provide information that can supplement and/or inform stock assessments or increase understanding of current and/or future impacts of climate change on fish stocks and/or fishing communities.